“We are facing the height of human baseness”: heavy sentences required at the Hérault assizes for the death of Alaïs

Me Philippe Capsié, civil party, and general counsel Violaine Jardel. FREE NOON – François Barrère

Driss Nader and Priscilla Humbert are accused of extortion with violence followed by death, for having participated in this terrible nocturnal expedition of February 10, 2020 in Montpellier, alongside Quentin Robert, the main author of the violence, who committed suicide in Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone prison a week before the trial opened.

The general advocate Violaine Jardel requested this Friday, March 29, heavy sentences against the two accused tried at the Assize Court of Hérault for the terrible death of Alaïs Ragot, this young 19-year-old prostitute, beaten to death in terrible circumstances on February 20, 2020, in an apartment on rue Aristide Olivier in Montpellier by a pimp, Quentin Robert, who committed suicide one week before the trial opened.

Life imprisonment incurred

Priscilla Humbert, 33, a mother of two little girls then living in Béziers, and who had been the partner of this convicted offender for several days, is being prosecuted for complicity in violent extortion, followed by death , and Driss Nader, 28, as co-perpetrator of this crime, which makes them face life imprisonment.

"We are faced with the height of human baseness, of ignominy. Nwe are in the presence of a scene of appalling violence, from my experience on the prosecution, I have rarely seen scenes of violence of such savagery" underlined the magistrate. She rejected the arguments put forward by the two accused.

"He had a thousand opportunities to end this scene. He will never dissociate himself from his co-author"she said of Driss Nader, who accompanied Quentin Robert into the apartment to keep the two men present at bay with his gun, and then stole watches as he left the premises.

"She made this criminal project possible"

For Priscilla Humbert, Violaine Jardel recalls that she opened her door to him knowing that he was on the run, that he was a pimp. She is not a white goose either. Six months before, she was still transporting narcotics for a network of traffickers. We are in the presence of an accused who lied, who traveled 85 km to bring the executioner to her victim. She very clearly enabled the realization of this criminal project."

In repression, it requires   25 years of criminal imprisonment against Driss Nader, and twelve years against Priscilla Humbert.

Previously, President Iris Christol, civil party for Alaïs's mother, described at length the "path of life and the descent into hell&quot ; of Alaïs, born into a happy family, with a mother who taught young children, and whose life will be devastated by a rape suffered at school when she was not a student. was only twelve years old.

Raped at 12 years old in college

"Qhen you have so much pain in your body, that you are so haunted by what the other has done to you, to have pain elsewhere, you scar yourself, you tear your hair out. She cut her veins at 13 in her bedroom" recalled the lawyer, thus explaining the process which led her to prostitute herself, undoubtedly from the age of 15. "I would not let anyone here judge these young girls, judge their journey and what they do. All these girls were dented because something was taken from them, most of the young prostitutes having been victims of sexual violence in their youth.

"You have blood on your hands"

"You, sir, you have blood on your hands. You bear immense guilt in what happened that evening" continued Mr. Luc Abratkiewicz, civil party for Alaïs's father. "JI did not see any evidence showing that she was under the influence. She liked this man, he excited her. You knew about this project, you joined it, you are its accomplice, madam, and you are its co-author, before concluding: "Today, Alaïs is a righteous among the righteous."

Previously, Me Philippe Capsié, civil party for Alaïs's grandparents, had also insisted on the darkness of this crime. "I'm not sure I ever want to relive a case like that again. I would have liked to have been elsewhere, he said, recalling that according to the elements of the investigation, "we have a duration of this scene of violence which oscillates between eight minutes and twenty-five minutes of horror."

The verdict is expected in the evening, after the defense pleadings in the afternoon by Mr. Mathieu Montfort and Mr. Jean-Baptiste Mousset.

I subscribe to read more